A River of Motion
by mandrake-o
Summary: Draco is a merman... or something like that.


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A River of Motion

Disclaimer: Trying to come up with a different one each day is difficult. Oh well. The characters etc. are not mine. I am only meddling with them because I want power.

Author's Note: This is the fourth of six stories I will be posting this week. Just one chapter each to help me decide which story I want to continue writing... not that I don't love all of them, I just don't have the time.

This is AU, but not so much.

Prologue

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So unbelievable

Water… It was something so pure, so beautiful. The way it moved. The way it sounded as it crashed upon shore or dribbled down rocks in a pebbly creek. Draco loved it.

Malfoy Manor was situated high above the cliffs of some long forgotten island off the coast of England. As Draco lay in bed each night, the sound of water, always water, lulled him to sleep. He had found it difficult to sleep during his first few nights at Hogwarts, unfamiliar with the sounds of other boys and mourning the loss of his aqueous lullaby. So he wandered. During those first few nights he wandered, familiarising himself with the dungeon corridors and the paths outside, toward Hogwarts' lake. And he found the place close enough to hear the gentle movement of the liquid, coursing softly like the blood within his very veins. Unseen by the castle's eyes, Draco slept, and never a more peaceful slumber did he sleep.

The merpeople often wondered why this boy came to their shores to dream. It became commonly accepted that he was just a misplaced merman himself, a different breed perhaps. And so he became to them just part of the scenery until the one day he lay with his head so close to the water that as warm, salty tears slid down his face, they entered the water. They disturbed the merpeople, many feet below him, in the dark bottom of the lake. Two, a merman and mermaid, swam to the surface to speak to him. Their skin was a grey-green colour and they had green seaweed-like hair. The male wore a string of blue-green pebbles around his neck and the female had a string of pale white pebbles.

"What's wrong?" they asked.

And through some magic, Draco understood them. He spoke of his homesickness for the Manor and its cliffs as well as the incessant movement of the waves, how it had comforted him.

The mer-pair twittered between themselves for a moment before coming to a conclusion. "Would you like to live with us?" They asked, and told him all about their cities and their whole way of life. Draco was interested, especially as they spoke of their beds, but it was growing lighter so he had to go back to the castle.

"I'll think about it," he said, and left them.

For the next two days, Draco did not return to the lake. Instead, the musical merpeople's voices and whispers of their song shadowed him. He dwelled on their proposition, even forgetting to torment the Gryffindor Pair (Potter and Weasley). It would be good to leave all this behind and live with the merpeople. On the third day, Draco couldn't stand the sleepless nights any longer and he headed back out to the lake. There the two merpeople were waiting for him.

"Have you made up your mind?" they asked.

Draco shook his head.

"Come with us," they repeated. "We'll show you what it's like."

Draco was a little suspicious. "How? Wouldn't you have to turn me into a merman?"

The merman held something up which looked like skinny tentacles. "Gillyweed. You'll be like us for an hour."

And seeing that he wouldn't have to be a merman forever, Draco's eyes lit up. He could have this experience and he would never wonder what it would be like down there. "Okay, but you're sure it won't last forever?"

"Yes," the mermaid smiled. Draco took the Gillyweed and chewed it. It was hard to chew, but years of eating squid made him a pro. Eventually he swallowed and it wasn't long before he had trouble breathing. He looked to the mer-pair, horrified. They just smiled and pushed his head underwater.

Immediately, Draco found he could breathe. "Amazing," he commented. Underwater, he learned that he had grown gills on the side of his neck and his feet had turned into flippers. But his skin was not their greyish green colour and he did not grow one of their silvery tails. He was a little disappointed about this, but quickly got over it as he looked around the lake. It was beautiful underwater.

The mer-pair swam in front of him, always calling for him to join them. They swam deep into the depths of the great lake. As they swam past clumps of black weed, Grindylows darted out to greet the merpeople. When they saw Draco, they flexed their long, skinny fingers, holding out their hands as though to choke him. Draco grew afraid, but the merpeople began singing. Draco couldn't quite understand what they were singing, but it calmed the Grindylows and they seemed to accept Draco as a merman.

They swam further, the merpeople always singing. There were rocks around with carvings of merpeople carrying spears and chasing animals, probably from ancient times. As they grew closer to the mer-settlement. The houses were organised much like any normal street. Each house was different, but all were carved from stone and each had a little garden. Just like houses above the water, there were some with fences, some without and all the gardens grew different types of weed and flower. Draco was fascinated by the contrast between here and above ground, and at the same time, he felt more alive and at home than he ever had before.

Draco followed his mer-guides to the end of one street, then they turned right and up another long avenue. Down this street, each house was more elegant than the next, and every garden was in perfect shape. Eventually, they entered the last house, the most grand. The house of the king. Draco wasn't sure how he knew it, but he did. And his guides entered as though they owned the place. The inside of this palace was more grand than the outside. The floor had been tiled with pieces cut from mother of pearl which changed colour at every step. The walls were a simple marble, inlaid with gold. The lighting came from small holes in the walls where a small glowworm sat. The ceiling was made from two layers of glass, with fish swimming about within. Statues carved from soapstone lined the walls, mermaids and men dancing and twirling looking absolutely happy. In effect, the entire hallway was completely otherworldly and extravagant.

The two merpeople led him down similarly decorated hallways and twittered some more about how wonderful it would be for him to live with them in this castle. Finally, in front of them opened large double-doors which looked something like pregnant fish. Sitting on a throne made entirely from gold (save a weed-filled cushion for the king's royal buttocks) was the king. He was introduced by one of the other merpeople nearby as His Majesty King Aquaticus Vissen, ruler of the kingdom of Meer Bodema. Draco introduced himself as Draco Malfoy.

The king spoke to Draco for a time about living in the water and out of it before he was called away on important business as the Leprechauns were staging a revolt. Leprechauns, the king explained, were used as their contacts with creatures above the water. They revolted often, but were usually sorted out by a holiday back to Ireland.

When the king had left Draco and his two guides alone in the throne room, Draco finally remembered that his guides had never told him their names.

"Oh," the pair giggled.

"I'm Selka Vissen," the female introduced herself.

"And I'm Merron Vissen," the male introduced. "We'll show you the room you'd be staying in. Your time's running short."

So the pair led Draco out of the hallway and up to the first floor. Through a wooden door decorated with a sea serpent was a large bedroom. It was more than Draco's own luxurious bedroom in Malfoy Manor. Draco suddenly began to feel the tiredness of his long day settle in when he saw the bed. It looked comfortable. The sheets had been woven from some sort of material Draco had never seen before. He wandered over to touch it. It was smoother than silk and was blue-grey in colour. The pillow seemed to have been stuffed with something heavy and when Draco sat on the bed, he realised it was a waterbed. Exhausted, he lay back, and as he fell asleep, he felt Selka and Merron pull the sheets around him.

When Draco awoke in the morning, he was shocked and horrified to find that he was still underwater in King Vissen's palace. He was even more startled to find that he could still breathe and that his skin was now the grey-green colour of the merpeople. He woke and immediately left the room. His mer-guides from the day before stopped him as he tried to leave.

"I have to go back, everyone will be worried. I'll be in trouble," Draco complained.

"We understand," they said as they let him leave.

Draco swam up as soon as he was out of the house and before long, he'd broken the surface of the water. He found that he was on the other side of the lake to where he'd started from and also that he could breathe although his head was in the air. As he swam toward shore, he felt his feet return to normal and when he stood, his skin was its proper colour. And his clothes were amazingly dry. As he crept back into Hogwarts, he couldn't help but wonder if his experience had been nothing more than a dream caused by lack of sleep and falling into the lake.

When he returned that evening to rest again, Selka and Merron were waiting and once again he was taken into the King's Palace to rest. With the rest he was having in the palace, Draco found that he didn't have to return to the lake every night. He learnt to sleep in the dorm with the other Slytherin boys. But he never stopped visiting the Kingdom of Meer Bodema.

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A/N: If you're a little confused, just think of Draco as some sort of misplaced merman. It'll come out in the story in the end… so long as I finish it.


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